From GenderMag to InclusiveMag:: A Journey for University IT

Abstract

Does your college/university say one of its core values is diversity, equity, and inclusion? If so, is the IT they are using equitable and inclusive for usage by diverse populations of users? The evidence suggests “no” — and in this talk, we will consider how to address this problem by answering the following questions: How can IT professionals assess whether their IT supports diverse users? And if they find problems, how can they fix them? Although there are empirical processes that can be used to find “inclusivity bugs” piecemeal in software, web apps, websites, and so on, what is often needed is a systematic inspection method to assess IT's support for diverse populations. To help fill this gap, we developed GenderMag, a method for finding and fixing “gender inclusivity bugs” — gender biases in IT interfaces and workflows. We then introduced InclusiveMag, a generalization of GenderMag that can be used to generate systematic inclusiveness methods for other dimensions of diversity. In this talk, we present the latest GenderMag results, what OSU's IT professionals are doing with it, and provide a glimpse into the future by briefly introducing InclusiveMag and our early experiences with it.